Kids are not all right, they never have been

Let me confess: I am a reluctant member of this so-called Generation Y. For one thing, the cohort is rather ill-defined, taking in all those born after 1980 as though it were a homogeneous group. Part of me has always regarded these generational constructs as the dubious creation of marketing and advertising spivs.

For another thing, the Gen Y label has become a shorthand of abuse. Almost daily now, we read or hear someone bemoaning how Gen Y embodies all the vices of our decadent society: the narcissism, the rampant individualism, the venal fickleness and, yes, those grotesque ''onesies''. Want to know what's wrong with society? It's this new breed of wanton youth, of course.

Protestors at a demonstration against the Poll Tax, which later became a riot known as the 'Battle of Trafalgar'. Photo: Getty Images

But I suppose we are stuck with generational tags, however imprecise and imperfect they may be. And there is some value to them.

After all, modern societies never remain static. Change is a constant. In response to circumstances, our values shift, and this happens over generations. As the sociologist Karl Mannheim posited, it is often the formative experiences of youth, shared by contemporaries, that can have the strongest influence in shaping individuals' attitudes.

I've just returned from a few weeks visiting Britain, where there is a live debate about generational politics. There's much talk there about a ''lost generation'', and for good reason.

The spell of summer heat, and triumphs by the British and Irish Lions in the rugby and Andy Murray at Wimbledon couldn't mask one thing: the new austerity looms large.

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In his spending review last month, the conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, announced an extra £11.5 billion in spending cuts, including punitive new welfare measures and extensive cuts to the public service. But he did so with the Labour opposition's acquiescence, a testament to the grim economic realities facing Britain.

Such bleakness is reflected in the state of British youth. The country has 20 per cent youth unemployment (though this pales in comparison with Greece and Spain). There is every likelihood Britain's Gen Y will learn painfully that history doesn't follow the Whiggish path of progress. They are facing the very real prospect that they will live shorter and poorer lives than their parents.

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But their values also appear resigned to a more brutish society. A recent survey by Ipsos MORI highlighted that members of Britain's Gen Y are the least likely to support higher taxes and government spending on welfare (compared with the pre-war generation, baby-boomers and Generation X).

Some, such as The Guardian's left-wing columnist John Harris, conclude that this is because Gen Y has ''grown up in a country in which postwar collectivism is increasingly but a distant memory, and the free-market world view handed on from Thatcher, to Major to Blair and Brown and now Cameron, is seemingly as ordinary and immovable as the weather''. There is much truth in that. The welfare state, regarded by previous generations as the achievements of a civilised society, is now considered a drag on productivity, enterprise and initiative. It is telling that young British voters are supporting the Conservatives at a substantially higher level than a decade ago.

The circumstances of Australia's Gen Y are much different from those of its British counterpart, of course. Our economy has escaped recession. Youth unemployment isn't a scourge here. Australian youth, unlike British, aren't confronted with ''managed decline'' as a nation.

But to what extent might Australia's Gen Y share the neo-liberal attitudes of Britain's Gen Y?

Those like me, coming from a social-democratic perspective, find it tempting to believe that Australia's Gen Y has been culturally formed by the aspirational nationalism of the Howard years. In Per Capita's tax survey of 2012, for instance, it was respondents in the 25-34-year-old bracket that had the most negative view of the current level of taxation (63 per cent said they paid too much). Such attitudes may only be bolstered by their experience of prosperity. This is a generation that has never really had to experience the harsh realities of a recession. It hasn't witnessed what a social safety net can do in times of hardship.

Yet, Generation Y is only cautiously optimistic about its prospects. A fading mining boom and an exorbitant housing market are keeping expectations rather modest.

There is also a certain cynicism within Gen Y, particularly as it concerns conventional politics. Last week, the Australia Institute published the results of a survey that found that 47 per cent of respondents aged 17-25 believed that no party best represents the needs of young people. About one-third said they are not really interested in politics.

Gen Y's detractors will no doubt see in this further evidence of its degenerate ways, its lack of civic engagement. When it comes to young people, it was ever thus. Leaving aside the onesies and the selfies, however, it's far from clear that Gen Y is really all that different from the rest of society.

Youth has always been a measure of any society's health, but a society's perception of youth is equally telling. Might it be that the hate directed at Gen Y is really a case of projection? In all the Gen Y bashing, perhaps what we're seeing is a society that isn't that happy about what it sees in itself.

Tim Soutphommasane is a columnist for The Age and presenter of the series Mongrel Nation on ABC Radio National.